We performed a comparison between Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comes out ahead of Microsoft 365 Defender. While both products provide real-time visibility of emerging threats and have convenient interfaces, Microsoft 365 Defender’s lack of compatibility with third-party products, as well as uneven support leave room for improvement.
"It is stable and scalable."
"Fortinet is very user-friendly for customers."
"Fortinet FortiEDR made our clients feel secure and more at ease, knowing that they had an EDR solution that would close the gap in their security posture."
"This is stable and scalable."
"Ability to get forensics details and also memory exfiltration."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the ability to customize it and to reduce its size. It lets you run in a very small window in terms of memory and resources on legacy cash registers."
"The product's initial setup phase is very easy."
"Exceptions are easy to create and the interface is easy to follow with a nice appearance."
"The primary advantage is that you don't need to install it. It's included in the Windows 10 delivery."
"What I like most is the protection against phishing emails and anti-spam."
"The most important and the most relevant features of Defender for Endpoint are the malware and ransomware protection."
"It is a straightforward setup."
"Its real-time security is the most valuable."
"One of the main features is the solution is very light on resources and we do not have any problems with it."
"For threat-hunting, I'll put some threats in a test scenario. I've downloaded known viruses that are out in the public for testing. They're not really a virus but they've got a signature. Defender for Endpoint will automatically find those, quarantine them for me, and alert me to what it did. It gives me "automated eyes.""
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is quite good. We haven't really experienced any issues with it."
"The most valuable features are spam filtering, attachment filtering, and antivirus protection."
"It's a great threat intelligence source for us, providing alerts for things it detects on the network and on the machines. We've used it often when there is a potential incident to see what was done on a computer. That works quite nicely because you can see everything that the user has done..."
"Microsoft Defender XDR is scalable."
"We can use Defender to block and monitor for security purposes without needing multiple other products to do different tasks."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft 365 Defender are the combination of all the capabilities and centralized management."
"A crucial aspect for our team is the inclusion of identity and access management tools from the vendor."
"The best feature is threat hunting. There are a lot of other features I like, such as the alert mechanism. The chain alert mechanism has a huge impact. It combines all the alerts into one incident and automatically correlates them with AI."
"The solution is well integrated with applications. It is easy to maintain and administer."
"We've encountered challenges during API deployment, occasionally resulting in unstable environments."
"To improve Fortinet, we need to see more features and technology areas at the endpoint level introduced."
"I would like the solution to extend beyond endpoint protection and include other attack surfaces such as other network components."
"The support needs improvement."
"I think cloud security and SASE are areas of concern in the product where improvements are required. The tool's cloud version has to be improved in terms of the security it offers."
"Cannot be used on mobile devices with a secure connection."
"We've had a lot of false positives; things incorrectly flagged that require manual configuration to allow. Even worse, after we allow a legitimate program, it sometimes gets flagged again after an update. This has caused a lot of extra work for my team."
"Detections could be improved."
"Some of the integrations that Defender should include involve the use of the web app."
"The documentation could be better. When they update their manuals, sometimes they refer to products by their old names, so it is a little confusing. For example, the documentation might still say "Advanced Threat Protection" instead of Defender for Endpoint."
"The dashboard customization could be improved."
"The integration and effectiveness of email security could be better. It's already built-in to the solution and checks emails, scans the links they contain etc."
"The initial setup can be a bit complex."
"The time it takes to restore the application could be improved. It has a lot of dependencies. It's not like the Microsoft security that comes with the OS. Updating through the command prompt, most of the time, it takes some time to download some of these dependencies."
"Integration with third-party vendors could be better. It would be better if it integrates with other protection solutions or other products outside of Microsoft. Nowadays, anti-virus protection doesn't really have to be planned as overall protection for your environment in terms of security. There are really different avenues that bad actors can take to wreak havoc on your machine."
"If there were more template queries in the library, that would make it much easier. They could have basic things, like, "Where's the IP for this user?" or, "What file was downloaded from this user?" If there were more of those basic queries that would help."
"The web filtering solution needs to be improved because currently, it is very simple."
"While the XDR platform offers valuable functionalities, it falls short of other solutions in its ability to deliver a cohesive identity experience."
"The management features could be improved, particularly in terms of better integration with Intune, Microsoft's cloud-based management solution."
"Generally, antivirus products provide a central control to manage every device in terms of who is installing it or who is trying to disable it, but Microsoft doesn't have such a control center for the antivirus product it provides."
"Sometimes, configurations take much longer than expected."
"The price could be better. It'll also help if they can continuously update and upgrade the solution. Every day there's a new virus uploaded into the network, and we have to keep updating it to identify all these things."
"There are other SIEM solutions that are easier to use, mainly based on the creation of rules, use cases, and groups."
"What could be improved in Microsoft 365 Defender is its licensing, e.g. it should be more consolidated and would be good if it has some optimizations. Improving the alerts and notifications, in terms of adding more details, would also be good for this solution."
More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Pricing and Cost Advice →
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is ranked 6th in Microsoft Security Suite with 182 reviews while Microsoft Defender XDR is ranked 1st in Microsoft Security Suite with 76 reviews. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is rated 8.0, while Microsoft Defender XDR is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint writes "Eliminates the need to look at multiple dashboards by automatically providing one XDR dashboard to show the security score of each subscription". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Defender XDR writes "Includes four services and four products, which can help organizations a lot". Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is most compared with Symantec Endpoint Security, Intercept X Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity Complete and Fortinet FortiClient, whereas Microsoft Defender XDR is most compared with CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager, Wazuh and Secureworks Taegis XDR. See our Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint report.
See our list of best Microsoft Security Suite vendors and best Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) vendors.
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